Staff recommends City Council approve the three-year agreement with Northwest Pipe Fittings, Inc. for Neptune AMR/AMI Software Hosting.

The City of Billings Public Works Department currently has an AMR/AMI (Automatic Meter Reading/Advanced Metering Infrastructure) system in place through Neptune Technology Group, Inc. All of the City's metering infrastructure works with Neptune's software which is cloud based.  The software is a meter data management platform that allows Public Works to view meter reads, consumption trends, and reverse flow.

Staff is recommending to sole source this software from Northwest Pipe Fittings, Inc. The software system is proprietary to the Neptune AMR/AMI system. In order to change the brand of software, it would require a large investment in new hardware including meters, telemetry and computer collection devices.  Northwest Pipe Fittings, Inc. is the only authorized Neptune distributor for the market area, including Billings, for sales, service, and warranty of Neptune water products and systems.

City Council may:

• Approve; the proposed three (3) year agreement with Northwest Pipe Fittings, Inc. for the Neptune software and services, or;
• Not approve the agreement. A new AMI/AMR system and software would need to be purchased.

The price for the first year of the contract is $1.89 per meter.  There are approximately 32,000 active meters in the system currently, resulting in a total estimated cost of $60,480 for the first year. The contract includes a not-to-exceed annual increase of 5% per meter.  Using the current meter count, the not-to-exceed costs are $63,360 and $66,560 for the second and third years respectively.  The total 3-year cost is approximately $190,400.

The software is budgeted in the FY24 water budget and there is adequate funding for this purchase.